What Is Antisocial Personality Disorder?

Learn about antisocial personality disorder and treatment from psychiatrist Ankur Saraiya in this Howcast video.

Transcript

So right off the bat I want to point out that having antisocial personality disorder does not mean that you're not interested in interacting with people, that you don't want to go out. Antisocial personality disorder actually refers to a set of actions and behaviors that violate the norms of society. It's widely thought that individuals that have antisocial personality disorder don't have the ability to empathize with other people and they don't feel remorse or any obligation to other people and therefor they'll behave in such a way that manipulates people and basically are willing to do anything to get what they need and get what they want. These individuals often have problems with the police and they will be arrested. They don't follow any rules, and they don't think any rules apply to them. So whatever they feel like doing they will generally do. Unfortunately it's also widely held that there is no real treatment for antisocial personality disorder. At best you can have these individuals learn how to conform to society's norms by teaching them that the consequences for them are better if they play within the rules. But in terms of actually changing their inner experience and having them feel that remorse or actually want to do the right thing is widely believe that that's not possible. So there is no real treatment, you can only help them manage their behavior so they don't get in to trouble. But very often they do get in to trouble and they'll end up into jail or in prison for a large percentage of their lives.However there is a subset of people who have learn how to manage their behavior so they can avoid getting in to trouble, but they will still tend to be exploitative and manipulative. And that's a basic overview of antisocial personality disorder.